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MPC to meet for three days from June 4

Higher trade gap pushes FY18 CAD over three times to $48.7 billion

The CAD is a keenly watched space that signifies the strength of an economy from an external sector point of view and also influences the currency markets.

The Reserve Bank has advanced the meeting of the Monetary Policy Committee (MPC) by a day to June 4 and also increased the duration to three days due to "certain administrative exigencies". It is for the first time that the MPC will meet for three days instead of the usual two.

The six-member MPC, headed by the RBI Governor, sets the benchmark interest rate.

On March 21, the central bank had announced the schedule of the bi-monthly MPC meetings for the entire fiscal year 2018-19.

"Owing to certain administrative exigencies, the Second Bi-monthly Monetary Policy meeting for 2018-19 will now be held on June 4-6, 2018 instead of on June 5-6," the RBI said in a statement.

It further said there was no change in the dates of all other MPC meetings for the year 2018-19.

The first bi-monthly monetary policy meeting of the fiscal was held on April 4-5 and the panel had decided to maintain status-quo on the interest rate citing inflationary concerns.

The MPC was set up by amending the Reserve Bank of India Act, 1934, through the Finance Act 2016.

The first meeting of the MPC was held in October 2016. Prior to setting up of the MPC, the RBI Governor used to decide the interest rate.